Our team and expert panel

The H+M website was launched in May 2013 and contains easy-to-understand and reliable health and medical information from The West Australian's Health+Medicine liftout, its news pages and other sources. Filled with articles, fact sheets, healthy recipes, calculators and links to health agencies, the site is a major resource for anyone wanting to lead a healthier life or trying to cope with a condition or disease.

Health+Medicine is the best read weekday lift-out in The West Australian (Roy Morgan Tracking Study 12 months to 31 December 2012). The lift-out, which started in 1999, was the first of its kind in Australian newspaper publishing, with the section and its reporters having been awarded numerous accolades.

Both the lift-out and website are supported by a panel of leading medical experts, including former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley.

Health+Medicine is supported by a grant from Healthway (the WA Health Promotion Foundation) with the involvement of The National Heart Foundation (WA division), Cancer Council of WA, Asthma Foundation of WA, Australian Medical Association (WA), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, FPWA Sexual Health Services, School of Population Health University of WA, Arthritis & Osteoporosis Foundation of WA and Diabetes WA.

The information on this site is not professional medical or health advice and must not replace such advice. Health+Medicine strongly recommends consulting a health care professional.

Expert Panel

Professor Fiona Stanley

Patron and Founding Director, Telethon Kids Institute, Australian of the Year 2003

Named Australian of the Year in 2003, Professor Fiona Stanley AC is a vocal advocate for the needs of children and their families. Professor Stanley was the founding director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, established in Perth in 1990 (now known as the Telethon Kids Institute). When she retired from the position in December 2011, the Institute had grown to more than 500 staff and students and forged an international reputation for its translational research in a range of areas. Born in Sydney in 1946, she moved to Perth with her family in 1956. She studied medicine at the University of Western Australia and practised in hospitals for two years before going to the United Kingdom and USA for further training in epidemiology (the science of describing and explaining the occurrence of disease in populations), biostatistics and public health. She has given many presentations, both nationally and internationally, on the socio-economic determinants of child health and published more than 300 papers in scientific journals. Professor Stanley continues her contribution to public life as a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Western Australia, Vice Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne, member of the ABC Board and Chair of the Alcohol Advertising Review Board. She is the UNICEF Australia Ambassador for Early Childhood Development and has been honoured as a "National Living Treasure" by the National Trust. She is Patron of the Telethon Kids Institute. The Fiona Stanley Hospital, named in her honour, opens in 2014. Professor Stanley has more than 300 published papers in scientific journals and is a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. She has served on the Federal Government's Social Inclusion Board and the WA State Government's Indigenous Implementation Board.
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Clinical Professor Peter Thompson

Director of Research Development, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital

Professor Peter Thompson studied medicine and was awarded his postgraduate MD from the University of Western Australia. He did postgraduate study in Melbourne and Harvard University, Boston. He is Clinical Professor in Medicine and Population Health at the University of Western Australia. He has been Consultant Cardiologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital since 1972, Cardiologist in Charge of Coronary Care at SCGH until 2005 and director of research at SCGH since 2004. He is director of the Heart Research Institute at SCGH, and is deputy director of the West Australian Institute for Medical Research. Professor Thompson's special interests are acute coronary syndromes and prevention of atherosclerosis. He also has a special interest in community control of coronary heart disease through his work with the Heart Foundation.BACK TO TOP

Associate Professor Rosanna Capolingua

General practitioner and Chair of the Governing Council for Child and Adolescent Health in WA

Dr Rosanna Capolingua is a general practitioner based in Floreat. During her 30-year medical career, she has combined a focus on caring for patients with promoting community health. She is a leader in health promotion in WA and a strong public advocate for education and other measures to reduce risks to the health of individuals and the whole community. These include reducing smoking, preventing harm from alcohol, reducing the incidence of overweight and obesity and promoting positive mental health. She has a special interest in the health of children and young people and currently how the use of social media can affect their mental health and wellbeing. Dr Capolingua has held leadership positions covering both the professional and political aspects of the medical profession as well as major roles with government and non-government health organisations involved with health and medical research and public health advocacy. Her current positions include Chair of Healthway, Chair of the Governing Council for Child and Adolescent Health in WA, board roles with St John of God Healthcare Australia, the University of Western Australia's Raine Foundation and with the Board of Governors of the University of Notre Dame Australia. She is also Medical Director of the AMA (WA) Foundation. Throughout her career, Dr Capolingua has actively engaged with her profession through the Australian Medical Association (AMA), both at State and national level. She served as Federal President of the AMA and State AMA (WA) President. At national level, she chaired many committees including the Taskforce on Indigenous Health and the Ethics and Medico-Legal Committee. She has been a member of two standing committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council - the Human Genetics Advisory Committee and the Australian Health Ethics Committee.
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Professor Jonathan Carapetis

Professor Jonathan Carapetis holds separate qualifications as specialist paediatrician, infectious diseases physician and public health physician, as well as a PhD. He is recognised as a leading mind in the Australian health field, with particular expertise in Indigenous child health and rheumatic heart disease. From 2006-2012, Professor Carapetis was director of the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin where he forged new directions in research and training to tackle the big problems in Indigenous health. Professor Carapetis was named Northern Territory Australian of the Year for 2008. He has been named as one of Australia's top 100 brains in Cosmos magazine and attended the Prime Minister's 20:20 summit in Canberra in 2008. He undertook his medical training at the Royal Melbourne and Royal Children's Hospitals. He is also a consultant paediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital and a Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia. BACK TO TOP

Clinical Professor Jack Goldblatt

Director, Genetic Services and Familial Cancer Program of WA

Clinical Professor Jack Goldblatt AM, MB ChB, MD, FCP, FRACP (Clin. Geneticist, HGSA) has been president of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia and a foundation board member of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies. He has co-authored 225 papers in international, peer reviewed journals on aspects of clinical, biochemical, population and molecular genetics. Professor Goldblatt is a specialist physician and medical geneticist who has worked in the academic field of human genetics since 1975. In 2011 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division (AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his service to medicine in the area of human genetics as a clinician and researcher.BACK TO TOP

Professor Philip Thompson

Professor Philip Thompson is Medical Director of the Lung Institute of WA, Clinical Professor at Curtin University, Director of the Centre for Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Research at UWA and a Consultant Respiratory Physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He is a member of the Board of Westcare Inc. He has previously been President of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand; Winthrop Professor of Respiratory Medicine at UWA; Editor-in-Chief of the journal Respirology, Director of the WA Node of the CRC for Asthma and Airways and a lead partner in the Australian Asthma Genetics Consortium. He has been involved in asthma and airways research and care of respiratory patients for more than 30 years and is recognised internationally for his work on airway pharmacology, house dust mite allergy and for his involvement in asthma therapeutics. More recently he has played a prominent role in furthering asthma genetics. Professor Thompson has over 250 medical and scientific publications.BACK TO TOP

Professor Aleksandar Janca

Head, School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of WA

Dr Aleksandar Janca MD, MSc, FRCPsych, FRANZCP is the Winthrop Professor of Psychiatry and Head of School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Western Australia in Perth. He also works as a Consultant Psychiatrist at Royal Perth Hospital and is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre in Perth. Dr Janca started his research career in 1987 as a Fulbright Scholar at the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri. From 1991 to 1997 he worked as a Medical Officer at WHO Headquarters in Geneva and was responsible for coordination of a number of international projects in the areas of psychiatric nosology, psychiatric epidemiology and transcultural psychiatry. Dr Janca has a particular interest in the development and evaluation of novel psychiatric concepts, assessment instruments in psychiatry and Aboriginal mental health. He has published more then 200 scientific papers, book chapters and books.BACK TO TOP

Professor Stephen Zubrick

Over the past 20 years, Steve Zubrick MSc AM PhD has been instrumental in the success of the leading Australian studies (national and State) of child and adolescent mental health. He is particularly interested in how to enhance human capital and capability and the translation of research findings into relevant and timely policies and actions on the part of governments and private agencies. He heads the Division of Population Sciences at the Telethon Kids Institute and is a Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia. Professor Zubrick is also Chairman of the Consortium Advisory Group for the National Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a Member of the VicHealth Indigenous Advisory Committee Steering Committee for the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children and sits on the Longitudinal Studies Advisory Group of the Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. He also contributes to the award-winning Life at ... series on ABC TV. In 2010 he received the Citizen of the Year Award for lifetime contributions to the children and young people of Western Australia.BACK TO TOP

Dr Penny Flett

Dr Penny Flett began her career after graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide. Early years were spent in a variety of locations and roles, including four years with the RAAF. Dr Flett was able to focus on her long-time interest in the elderly in the late 1970s, and she pursued post-graduate qualifications in both geriatric medicine and medical administration in the 1980s. She has become a champion for people of all ages who need a high level of ongoing support and service. She is convinced that achieving successful ageing in our society in the next few decades must begin now, with strong and innovative leadership. Dr Flett was 1998 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year, and was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003. She has contributed to many government and non-government boards and associations, in order to support good planning, service excellence, and inclusion of all affected by the ageing of our society.BACK TO TOP

Dr Brendan Stanley

Consultant Vascular Surgeon at the Mount Hospital and Fremantle Hospital

Dr Brendan Stanley is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon at Mount Medical Centre Perth and Visiting Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at Fremantle Hospital. He is an Executive Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Vascular Surgery. He is also Surgical Supervisor of Vascular Trainees at Fremantle Hospital. Dr Stanley has published on the guidelines for endoluminal repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms and on the development of fenestrated endoluminal graft repair of aortic aneurysms. Dr Stanley's current areas of interest and research include development and application of Fenestrated and Branched Endoluminal Grafts for the treatment of Arch, Thoracic and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms and Carotid Artery Angioplasty and Stenting. He has successfully performed the first three Australian total endoluminal repair of an aneurysm involving the arch of the aorta. His interest in minimally invasive endovascular stenting is incorporated into all aspects of his vascular surgical practice.BACK TO TOP

Professor Robert Newton

Foundation Professor of Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University

Professor Robert Newton was director of the Biomechanics Laboratory, at Ball State University in Indiana. He has also worked at the Pennsylvania State University as a visiting research fellow in the Center for Sports Medicine. Current major research directions include: reducing decline in strength, body composition and functional ability in cancer patients; cancer-related fatigue and the influence of exercise; management of lymphedema secondary to breast cancer, physical activity and the prevention of falls and frailty in the elderly. Professor Newton is an accredited exercise physiologist, certified strength and conditioning specialist with distinction with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), Fellow of Exercise and Sports Science Australia and Fellow of the NSCA. In 2004 he was awarded Outstanding Sports Scientist of the Year by the NSCA. He has published over 220 refereed scientific articles, two books, 14 book chapters and has a current h-Index of 44 with his work being cited over 7036 times. As of 2013 his research had attracted over $13 million in competitive research funding. Professor Newton has an extensive track record of research and consultancy in the assessment and development of neuromuscular performance, in particular maximal strength and power. He has been a consultant to many professional teams and sporting organisations including Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets, Indianapolis Colts, England Rugby, Manchester United, English and Australian Institutes of Sport and Surfing Australia. In 2012 Professor Newton was appointed to the Advisory Board of Nike SPARQ. Independent metrics of research output include: GoogleScholar, ResearcherID, ResearchGate.BACK TO TOP

Margaret Miller

Public health nutritionist

Margaret Miller is a public health nutritionist with extensive experience in planning, costing, implementing and evaluating nutrition and health promotion policies and programs at local, State and national level in Australia. She is the principal or associate investigator for a range of local, State and national public health nutrition, epidemiological and health promotion research projects. Author of more than 30 research and evaluation papers in peer reviewed journals and numerous published health promotion strategic plans, program evaluation reports and nutritional surveys, Ms Miller is also a freelance journalist with more than 200 published articles on nutrition and health.BACK TO TOP

Associate Professor Kym Guelfi

Associate Professor, School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, the University of Western Australia

Associate Professor Kym Guelfi is a teaching and research academic and is involved in a number of research projects investigating the role of exercise in disease prevention and management (particularly obesity and diabetes). More specifically, she is interested in the inter-relationship between exercise, appetite and food intake - and the implications for weight management; the role of exercise during pregnancy for the prevention and management of gestational diabetes and other health-related complications; and the role of exercise in managing type 1 diabetes mellitus. Her work has been published in quality peer-review journals and she regularly presents at national and international conferences. She supervises several PhD students and has been successful in obtaining a number of research grants to investigate the role of exercise in the prevention and management of diabetes and obesity. Associate Professor Guelfi is also involved in teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in the School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health.BACK TO TOP

Editorial Team

Monica Videnieks

Health+Medicine Editor

Monica Videnieks has been a newspaper journalist for 20 years working predominantly in Perth and Sydney. She has been a Features Editor at The West Australian since 2006.BACK TO TOP

Katie Hampson

Health+Medicine Staff Writer

Katie Hampson has been a journalist for 16 years, working for UK publications Guardian Unlimited and the Daily Mail before joining The West Australian in 2006 as both a news and features writer. She has been with Health+Medicine since 2014.BACK TO TOP

Peta Rasdien

Health+Medicine Senior Writer

Peta Rasdien has been a newspaper journalist for more than 20 years, primarily writing health news and features. She has written for Health+Medicine for the past five years.BACK TO TOP

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December 2012

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The information on this site is not
professional medical or health advice
and must not replace such advice.
Health+Medicine strongly recommends
consulting a health care professional.

Health+Medicine is supported by a grant from Healthway (the WA Health Promotion Foundation) with the involvement of The National Heart Foundation (WA division), Cancer Council of WA, Asthma Foundation of WA, Australian Medical Association (WA), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, FPWA Sexual Health Services, School of Population Health University of WA, Arthritis & Osteoporosis Foundation of WA and Diabetes WA.